Won’t I Be Allowed Into Heaven?

I’m not a bad person. Won’t I be allowed into heaven?

How “good” of a person are you really? Let’s give ourselves a little self-test:

1. Have you ever told a lie? Even the smallest of lie counts.
2. Have you ever stolen something? This is pretty much anything you took without permission and never returned.
3. Have you ever hated someone?

If you have done one of these then you’re not as “good” of a person as you might think. As people we tend to determine whether we’re “good” or “bad” by comparing ourselves to the most hurtful and harmful people we can think of and by that standard we look pretty good. But God’s standard is perfection.

You may say “but that’s not fair, no one is perfect” or “if God is a loving God then He’ll forgive me of the little things I’ve done”. Imagine that you’re watching a court trial. The defendant has been asked to stand. The case has been made, the evidence is clear, and the verdict is about to be given. It’s obvious the defendant is guilty of his crime. Now let me ask you a question: would the judge be a good judge if he simply let the defendant go? Of course not! In fact, the judge would most likely loose his job because everyone knows that a price must be paid for every crime. A good judge does what is right. Everyone must pay the price. God is a good judge. He can’t just let us go.

But God is merciful and loving! Because of His great love He sent His Son to pay the price. It was as if the defendant received the verdict and at that time a man, who the defendant did not know, walked into the courtroom and said, “Judge, I love this man and I want to pay the price for his crime.” The judge then looks to the defendant to see if he will accept this man’s gift and awaits his response. God sent His gift for you to pay the price for everything you’ve ever did wrong; the Bible calls those wrongs “sin”. But you have to accept this gift.

Our “goodness” the Bible calls “filthy rags”, another words what we think is good is really our feeble attempt to look good compared to other people. Realizing that we’re not good and we are in serious need of Jesus to pay our price is among the first steps to becoming a follower of Jesus.

I'm trying to write short answers (around or less than 600 words) to tough questions. These will find their way to www.verostudents.org under the Questions & Objections section (a total of 22 Q&O). Any advice, suggestions, or corrections are very welcomed. I've been studying apologetics for about 8 years so I thought it was wise to use some of the knowledge to share with students and parents with question, without writing a complete thesis paper on the subject.